Video Mapping Toolkits is the second body of work created by new media artist Alexander Kuiava for projection mapping: libraries of animated architectural elements — columns, arches, cornices, pediments, window frames — rendered with an alpha channel, ready to be composited onto any building in the world. The first toolkits appeared in 2014.
The idea arrived on foot. Walking through Vienna, Kuiava kept looking up at the imperial facades and saw that a building is not one surface — it is an assembly of parts. Take those parts apart, animate them separately, and any architecture can be rebuilt in a new style, a new material, a new century.
Role & Scope
- Concept & method
- Art direction
- 3D animation & motion design
- Library architecture
- Content production
Milestones
- First toolkits released in 2014
- Inspired by the imperial facades of Vienna
- 40+ collections produced to date
- Companion method to Video Mapping Loops
Vienna, 2014
“A facade is not a surface. It is a set of parts waiting to be taken apart.”
The origin: decomposing the city
After moving to Vienna, Kuiava spent a long time simply walking. The city rewards that: layer upon layer of Baroque, Historicism, Secession, each facade competing with the next. What kept returning was not the ornament itself but its repetition. Almost every building, in almost every style, is assembled from the same vocabulary — windows, frames, doors, cornices. On top of that base sit the style-specific groups: columns, pediments, pilasters, balustrades.
Group those elements correctly and a set can be built that fits any architecture anywhere. That was the whole insight, and it turned into the first video mapping toolkits in 2014.
There was a practical pressure behind it too. Event agencies asking for a quote never wanted only a PDF; they wanted a minute of video showing how the show would look on their building. Very few were willing to pay for that presentation. Pre-rendered animated elements solved both sides of the problem at once: the client got a convincing preview within a day, and the elements went on living inside real shows afterwards.
From there the work became a question of language rather than logistics. What can a column be? It can be drawn in Victorian ornament or in Art Deco line work. It can fill with water, catch fire, or grow vines across its shaft. The architectural form stays constant while the style, material and theme change — which is exactly what makes a small library able to dress a thousand buildings.
2014
Year the first video mapping toolkits were released
40
+
Themed collections produced to date
50
Animated elements with alpha channel inside a single toolkit
Loops break the building apart. Toolkits build it back.
The two projects are one method in two movements: the loops work with the whole plane and volume of a facade, the toolkits work element by element.
The method behind video mapping toolkits
Three decisions turn a folder of animations into video mapping toolkits that fit architecture they have never seen.
Decompose, then group
Every facade shares a base vocabulary: windows, frames, doors, cornices. Above it sit the style-dependent groups — columns, pediments, pilasters, balustrades. Sorting elements into those families, rather than modelling one specific building, is what makes a set universal. A single toolkit then carries roughly 25 to 50 separate animated elements, enough to dress a whole elevation.
Render once, composite forever
Each element is delivered as a PNG sequence with an alpha channel — pre-rendered, transparent, independent. That single format choice removes the 3D pipeline from the equation. No modelling of the client’s building, no render farm, no expensive workstation. The designer imports finished elements and spends their time on composition instead of on software.
Form constant, style variable
The architectural form is the constant; everything else is a variable. A column can be drawn in Victorian ornament or Art Deco line work, filled with water, set on fire, or overgrown with vines. Collections are therefore built by theme — geometric, classic, ethnic, nature, techno, festive — so a producer can re-dress the same building for a wedding, a city anniversary or Christmas without changing the underlying composition.
Drag an element onto the facade. Scale it to the column. The show starts writing itself.
Because every element arrives with transparency baked in, building a projection mapping scene from video mapping toolkits is a matter of layering rather than rendering. Place the elements over a frontal photograph of the building in After Effects, or mix them live in Resolume Arena, MadMapper or Modul8. Nothing needs to be modelled, and nothing needs to be re-rendered when the client asks for a different mood.
PNG sequences · alpha channel
After Effects
Resolume · MadMapper · Modul8
No 3D modelling required
Where video mapping toolkits are used
This is the native habitat. Animated elements are aligned to the real columns, arcades and window rows of the building, so the projection reads as the architecture itself waking up rather than as a video playing on a wall.
It also survives contact with reality. A city hall, a theatre, a museum and a concrete residential block can all be dressed from the same library, because the elements were designed around architectural families rather than around one address.
The two libraries were designed to be used together. Video Mapping Loops work with the whole plane and volume of the facade, deforming and dissolving its geometry through light and shadow. Toolkits work point by point, selecting and decorating individual elements.
Dramatically, that is a complete act. The loops tear the building down; the toolkits rebuild it in a style it never had. Alternating between the two is how a fifteen-minute show keeps an audience on the square without repeating itself.
Because the form stays and only the treatment changes, one composition can be re-skinned for completely different occasions. Gold and ornament for a city anniversary, ice and frost for winter holidays, flowers and vines for a wedding, carved pumpkins and shadows for autumn.
For a production company this is the difference between one project and a recurring contract. The mapping of the facade is done once; every following season is a change of costume, not a change of build.
Transparency makes the elements portable. The same animated arch or column drops into stage design and LED scenography, into augmented and virtual reality scenes, and into game environments as an animated decorative layer.
That portability was not planned. It appeared because the elements were built as independent objects rather than as parts of a finished scene — and independence is what lets a piece of content outlive the project it was made for.
Authorship
“For years people criticised this approach to animation. Now the same people copy it.”
My method, and where the collections live
The idea, the method and the first libraries belong to Alexander Kuiava. They did not come out of a manual; they came out of a walk through Vienna and years of testing against real facades, real budgets and real deadlines. The approach was unusual enough at the time to attract open criticism. Today it is standard practice across the industry, imitations included.
“I did not invent a product. I noticed that a facade is already a set of parts, and I gave those parts a way to move.”
The official producer of the collections is the Austrian video production studio LIME ART GROUP. They are distributed through the projection mapping microstock Video Mapping Store and the project showcase videomappingtoolkits.com, and the method is taught at the new media art school Frontskill.
The work continues. Every new collection asks the same question in a different material: what happens to a column when it is made of ink, of plasticine, of stone, of light?
Video mapping toolkits FAQ
What are video mapping toolkits?
A video mapping toolkit is a set of animated architectural decoration elements — columns, arches, cornices, pediments, window frames — delivered as PNG sequences with an alpha channel. Each set holds roughly 25 to 50 elements, so a designer can assemble a full facade composition without modelling anything.
How are toolkits different from video mapping loops?
Loops act on the whole facade: they deform, displace and dissolve its geometry through light and shadow. Toolkits act on individual elements: they select, highlight and decorate a specific column, arch or window. Loops break the building apart, toolkits build it back in a new style. Most strong shows use both.
Who created the first video mapping toolkits?
Alexander Kuiava. The method came from walking through Vienna and noticing that any facade can be decomposed into repeating parts. The first collections were produced in 2014 and released through LIME ART GROUP.
Do I need 3D software to build a show with them?
No. The elements are already rendered with transparency, so the work happens in compositing. Layer them over a frontal photograph of the facade in After Effects, or mix them live in Resolume Arena, MadMapper or Modul8. No modelling, no render farm, no specialised workstation.
Will the elements fit my building?
In most cases, yes. The sets are grouped by architectural family rather than by a specific address, and almost every facade — Baroque, Historicist, modernist or plain — repeats the same base vocabulary of windows, frames and cornices. Scaling and masking handle the rest.
Where can I get the collections?
A curated selection is available as the Video Mapping Toolkits Bundle in the shop on this site. The full catalogue lives at videomappingtoolkits.com, Video Mapping Store and LIME ART GROUP.
Rebuild any
facade in a
style it never had.
Ten toolkits are gathered into one bundle — animated columns, arches, cornices and window frames with alpha channel, ready to composite onto any building.
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